A HOME AND A BOND
Pecos student finds a roommate — and a friend for life — in assistant basketball coach
Dominick Baca and Carlos Cordova started their friendship with a house.
They ended up with a home. The unusual living arrangement between a then-25-year-old, freshly hired assistant boys basketball coach at Pecos High School (Baca) and a rising sophomore player (Cordova) began with a simple statement — “I have a house.”
But the friendship between the two is about more than a roof over their heads. It’s about security, a sense of thankfulness and, yes, family.
“No matter what happens, he’s going to be a big part of my life, and I’m going to be a big part of his life,” Baca said. “It’s never gonna be, ‘Hey, this was a good situation, but it’s over with now.’ … We’re always going to be a part of each other’s lives.”
The story begins more than three years ago. The summer of 2014 was a delicate time for both Baca and Cordova, as one was yearning to return home while the other searched for stability after losing the man who raised him. The twist is that Cordova — the kid — was the one with a place to live.
It was a single-wide trailer situated on the outskirts of Pecos, but it had served as home for Cordova and his grandfather, Concepcion
Cordova, who had raised Carlos since he was an infant. Concepcion Cordova died in June 2014 from cancer. The trailer stood vacant on a lot the elder Cordova had rented.
With his grandfather gone, Carlos Cordova tried to figure out what he was going to do. He even reached out to Baca — a 2007 Pecos graduate who was just three months into his first coaching job as an assistant at his alma mater — during an offseason practice in June.
“I just stared bawling up to this guy, because he was here,” said Carlos, now a senior at Pecos. “I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ And he comforted me, told me everything was going to be OK and something will work out.
“I never cry,” Carlos continued, “but that was the first time I did that in front of somebody.”
Meanwhile, Baca was commuting to work from Santa Fe but wanted to move back home to Pecos. Baca was talking to a group of players about his situation one day when Carlos uttered words that would change both their lives.
“I was just kidding, and I didn’t think he was going to take me seriously,” Carlos said. “I said, ‘Hey, I have a house, and no one’s living in it right now.’ He said, ‘All right, I’ll look into it.’ Right after practice, when we were leaving, he came up to me and asked, ‘Are you being for real about the house?’ And I told him I was.”
Since then, the two have lived together in two mobile homes and moved three times until finding a permanent piece of land that can house their trailer. In the spring, Baca bought the property, just a mile from the high school.
Baca and Carlos now live in a doublewide mobile home, with four bedrooms and a large living room — a far cry from the small, two-bedroom place they lived in for the first six months. It’s become a spot where the two hang out when they’re not at the gym. Now, they can entertain friends and teammates, watch TV, play video games, chat and even wrestle — kind of the way brothers do.
In a lot of ways, they are Pecos’ Awed Couple, amazed how fortunate they’ve been.
Although they are separated by blood and 10 years, their personalities are quite similar: hardworking, sometimes reserved, but also affable.
“They are so much alike, and generally, people that are that much alike don’t tend to get along,” Pecos head coach Ira Harge Jr. said. “But these guys do.”
Socorro Elena Cordova, Carlos’ mother, admits that Baca has been a blessing for her son, calling him a “big brother.” She has maintained a presence in her son’s life, but gave Carlos to her parents to raise after he was born while she moved to Albuquerque to find work. Socorro Cordova, who speaks only Spanish, returned to Pecos after her mother, Maria Elena Perez, died when Carlos was 4, so she could help support her son and dad. Still, it was Concepcion Cordova who raised her son.
“Every family goes through ups and downs; that’s part of a relationship,” Socorro Cordova said through her son. “I love him [Carlos] and care for him, and I just want what’s best for him. I always wanted him to strive to be the best at whatever he does.”
When Concepcion Cordova died, Carlos moved in with his mother, but he considered moving to Mexico with other family members. Staying in Pecos seemed like the last thing he wanted to do.
“I just stayed to myself for a while,
stayed indoors for a while,” Carlos said. “And then practice started again [in July], but I didn’t know if I wanted to play anymore. Then, one day, I just came back.”
If anyone could identify with what Carlos was going through, it was Baca, now 28. Although his parents live in
Pecos, Baca grew up with his grandmother, Grace Quintana.
“I was kind of the spoiled one from her,” Baca said. “I got everything. I was kinda selfish in a way.”
However, Baca understood the concept of a team. He was a part of a Panthers squad that reached the Class 2A championship game in 2005 and was an All-State player as a senior. He also was a walk-on player at New Mexico Highlands, where he caught the attention of Harge Jr., who was then an assistant coach for the Cowboys.
“He not only made the team, but by the time he was in his last year of playing, he could have started,” Harge Jr. recalled. “He did at times, but to go from a walk-on to getting significant playing time and starting was remarkable.”
Before the two decided to live together, Baca gained the blessing of Socorro Cordova, who said she was “all for it. I’m grateful Dominick and Carlos bumped into each other.”
Baca also set the ground rules for Carlos, now 18: Take care of school, be honest and don’t take advantage of Baca’s good nature.
“If you can’t respect that, then you’ll have to go live somewhere else, and I’ll go my way,” Baca said.
That’s never been an issue with Carlos. He is an honor roll student with a chance to be valedictorian at Pecos High. He’s also a four-sport athlete (cross-country, basketball, baseball, track and field). Baca says Carlos asks for permission to go to a girlfriend’s house or to hang out with friends. The youngster even tried to find a parttime job this fall so he could earn some money, but Baca suggested that might be too big of a load for him to handle.
Baca instead came up with a plan for paying him for doing chores around the house. That didn’t sit well with his roommate, who is self-sufficient beyond his years.
“It’s kinda weird for him to hear, ‘Let me do this for you, Carlos,’ or ‘Here, let me help you out,’ ” Baca said. “He likes to earn everything he gets.”
Like most family members, they have stories. There have been times when they’ve had to sleep in the living room, struggling to keep warm in the trailer with the help of a fireplace.
Once in a while, they’d play a game: trying to guess how low the temperature would fall on cold nights.
“One time, the thermometer just said, ‘Low,’ ” Carlos recalled.
“There were times it was warmer outside than it was in the house,” Baca added. “I mean, how does that happen?”
Yet, as the roommates settle into their new home, change is again on the horizon — graduation is just six months away for Carlos. He said he and Baca had several discussions about it as Thanksgiving approached, which crystallized the idea that life will be different yet again.
Carlos said he’d like to continue playing basketball — even contemplating following in Baca’s footsteps and walking on at a collegiate program.
If that doesn’t materialize, Carlos said he’d likely go to The University of New Mexico and study to become a civil engineer.
“I kinda grew up around construction work, so that field interests me,” Carlos said.
Baca teased his roommate, his friend, saying that Carlos talked about being a construction worker when he was younger.
“He was like, ‘I’m just gonna work in the field and do rock,’ ” Baca said. “We’re like, ‘Dude, you can still do that, but you can boss [other] people to do that.’ I mean, you’re good at math, why break your back like that?”
Sounds like advice you’d get from a big brother. And a friend for life.
They are so much alike, and generally, people that are that much alike don’t tend to get along. But these guys do.” Ira Harge Jr. Pecos head coach